Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Share an external hard disk drive

P

pavloskgr

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 6, 2006
41
0
Hey everybody,

i have a 500 gb external hard disk drive connected to my imac via firewire, and i was wondering how can i access it from my macbook through my local wireless network? Obviously i have access for the iMac hard disk but not for the external one! I've done some search and i found that there are some third party apps that can do that, but i can't believe that you are not able to do it with OS X tiger! Please tell me what should i do!

P.S. Correct me if i am wrong , Leopard has Finder enhancements that makes you connect to any mac on your network which means that if i get Leopard i can gain access to my ext HDD from any other computer?
 
What happens if you put a shortcut to the external hard drive in your iMac hard drive?

Never tried it, but might work. Worth a shot anyway.
 
Tiger absolutely lets you share an external drive. I do it all the time, you don't need to buy anything!

  1. From the computer that is physically connected to the extHD turn "Personal File Sharing" on from the "Sharing" preference pane
  2. From the other computer open the finder and go to to "Network"
  3. Connect to the computer that is physically connected to the ext HD
  4. You'll get a list of all the volumes and user folders in a list, just click on the name of the ext HD
 
I can't share External Hard Disc on Leopard's Network

I agreed that Tiger will show any mounted volumes once you connected to the network users to share, but Leopard doesn't do this and I can't share my External Hard Disc on my home network...

I tried SharePoints, but crashed everytime I create a new share with my USB External Hard Disc.

BTW, I am having this extremely disappointing and annoying problem with Leopard's auto join preferred Airport/Wifi Network. It doesn't do as it says, and always pop up to ask me to join network from the lists. I've added my preferred network in AirPort/Advanced, it shows in my Ask to Join List but claimed that it can't find my preferred network and won't automatically join. I have to manually click on it everytime (thank god without any keychain password pop up problem like other threads I read).

I tried many ways, read many articles, but I still can't fix this. I'm using a Computer to Computer Internet Sharing through AirPort, and I don't think this affect my automatically join right?

Thanks for reading, hopefully someone could help.
 
in the finder go to.
1. "go" menu
2. "connect to server"
3. locate imacs IP address/IP name. E.g. 192.168.1.2 or imac.local
4. hit connect
5. when prompted enter user name/password of an administrator account FROM THE IMAC. (some people will use the account from the computer trying to access, instead of using an account from the computer they are trying to access).

firewire drive aswell as any other USB/FW drives connected to the computer will show after login is successful, click desired drive and enjoy!
 
Connect using Go + IP Address does not mount USB Hard Disc Drives

Thanks, tried that but only showing Macintosh HD and Users, didn't mount my plugged in USB Hard Disc Drives :(

Tiger works in this but Leopard doesn't? How come...




Btw, I managed to resolve "Auto join preferred network", by doing this (found in MacNN Forum)
http://forums.macnn.com/92/networking/358334/leopard-airport-no-longer-automatically-joining/2/

Keychain Utilities Access:
Your network should be in both the login and system keychains

Enter both entries and, under the Access Control tab, give all applications access to the password.

Now, my Airport manage to auto join preferred network without any manual clicking in Leopard.
 
it works perfectly from all my computers regardless of leopard/tiger or even jaguar.

you mustnt be doing something properly.

try sharing your USB drive, "get info" on the drive then hit the tickbox "share drive"
 
Leopard only mounts Firewire iPod

Tested again, only mounts Firewire iPod / Hard Disk,

does not mount: External USB Hard Disk, USB iPod, USB Thumb Drive in browsing Network Sharing.


I wanted to use this mount drive feature to plug in USB TV Media Player Hard Disk to my MacBook in "Living Room" so my iMac in the "Office" can direct transfer files to the USB Media Player Hard Disk using AirPort Network user sharing. But it doesn't mount after network connected.

Any suggestion?
 
edrian said:
Tested again, only mounts Firewire iPod / Hard Disk,

does not mount: External USB Hard Disk, USB iPod, USB Thumb Drive in browsing Network Sharing.


I wanted to use this mount drive feature to plug in USB TV Media Player Hard Disk to my MacBook in "Living Room" so my iMac in the "Office" can direct transfer files to the USB Media Player Hard Disk using AirPort Network user sharing. But it doesn't mount after network connected.

Any suggestion?
Click to expand...

is it mounting on the computer that you are plugging it into??
 
It was mounted fine on my MacBook, clicked on "Share this folder" in Get Info, checked Sharing in System Preferences and my USB External HD is in my Sharing List, Users are set to Read/Write as default.

But my connected network's iMac can't see this mounted USB External HD. Tried adding this USB External HD to "SharePoints" but the freeware crashed.

As previously mentioned, Firewire iPod/HD & mounted CD appears after connected, but not USB FAT32 External HD or Thumb Drive...
 
so is the external HD your trying to connect a FAT32 disk?

i have never had any troubles, even with PC formatted disks. i dont have to share any of the drives.

i spose you should turn on file sharing in "system preferences">"sharing".

p.s. dont use shareware or softtware if something is already avaliable. it always stuffs it up
 
I have 2 500 GB WD MyBooks both of which I formated to Mac OS Journal not the Extended Journal. Enabled file sharing in my pref's now they are abled to be access via any of my MAC just by clicking on the shared computer. Hope that helps out some.
 
OS X or Leopard can't Network Share or Mount FAT32 USB External HD

I guess OS X or Leopard can't Network Share or Mount FAT32 USB External HD based on my experience and some replies here too...

Don't think that's acceptable.
 
I am having this problem too. I have an external HD, LaCie, formatted as FAT 32, mounted and usable just fine on my iMac. I am trying to connect and read this drive from my MacBook Pro over a wireless network, but it is simply not visible. Adding an alias from a location which IS visible (file folders) when shared doesn't work, it can't resolve the alias remotely.

Are these aliases symlinks under the covers? I don't know, about to check it out. I just replied here because this is the exact problem I am having atm.
 
Under "Sharing & Permissions" the USB HD oddly only lists "you can read and write" when you "Get Info". There are no options at all to change anything about it.
 
andyfallondev said:
I am having this problem too. I have an external HD, LaCie, formatted as FAT 32, mounted and usable just fine on my iMac. I am trying to connect and read this drive from my MacBook Pro over a wireless network, but it is simply not visible. Adding an alias from a location which IS visible (file folders) when shared doesn't work, it can't resolve the alias remotely.

Are these aliases symlinks under the covers? I don't know, about to check it out. I just replied here because this is the exact problem I am having atm.
Click to expand...

do you have the la cie which you need to logon using EdMini??

in that case it will never work, lac ie has stated this.. unless they come up with some sort of fix hen were all stuffed.
 
No, it's a 200G drive that is housed in a stupid red brick for some reason. I don't know why it is formatted FAT32 either, I might have to try and rebuild the FS to work around this. There is no FireWire connection, so going that route is not an option.

It has an external power button at the back that turns the drive on, at which point it detects and mounts on the desktop in leopard.

My symlink idea did not work,. Right now I am unable to fix this problem. I think that it is possible that the FAT32 FS may be the reason. Has anyone actually ever done this before (external USB FAT32 formatted drive shared over a wireless network from one mac to another)?

do you have the la cie which you need to logon using EdMini??
Click to expand...

I don't think so, i have no idea what you are even talking about.
 
andyfallondev said:
Has anyone actually ever done this before (external USB FAT32 formatted drive shared over a wireless network from one mac to another?
Click to expand...

I'm using that currently with the method mentioned in post 2 and 3. The drive is plugged into my iMac and I can access it just fine on my MBP (wireless). I have full rights with all the files and folders. When using the iMac i went to preferences-sharing. Selected file sharing and that was all i had to do.

Finder-Go-connect to server. Entered in iMac.local and everything pops up just fine.
 
Yeah, i just don't get it. Folders I see when browsing the remote computer:

Jupiter (iMac machine name)
Jupiter Public Folder
Macintosh HD

What I don't see:
LaCie

:/ Bunk
 
So can someone confirm that you can't share FAT32 formatted drives over a network between two mac computers in Leopard? I can get my MBP to see my Mini's HD easily but not the external USB hard drive connected to it...
 
OS X can't Network Share or Mount FAT32 USB External HD

wickedG35 said:
So can someone confirm that you can't share FAT32 formatted drives over a network between two mac computers in Leopard? I can get my MBP to see my Mini's HD easily but not the external USB hard drive connected to it...
Click to expand...

As I previously tried and realized, my situation here is the same, couldn't mount any FAT32 USB External HD. Anyone tried NTFS HD yet?

I'm sure Macintosh HD can be mounted, of course, but I can't be re-formatting all HD to Macintosh type since I need them to be stay FAT32 to be used by PC/Windows/Media Player software.

Please write a report to Leopard Feedback, I did mine. Honestly, been quite fed up with Leopard, many user friendly interface from Tiger had been discontinued.
Such as:
Finder: Select many files and click NEW FOLDER in toolbar, you can rename this new folder and the SELECTION OF FILES still remain, therefore you can drag selected files to newly created folder afterwards.
This feature doesn't work in Leopard, but intelligently works in Tiger.

Finder: If you click on a folder in ICON VEW, you can simply GO BACK (Toolbar) and it'll bring you back to that previously viewed specific selection/folder.
This feature doesn't work in Leopard, it'll bring you back to the TOP again, so you can't continue scanning from where you just left.
 
I, too am having a problem connecting an external hard drive that is FAT32. If someone reformatted their external hard drive for Mac and if it worked, please let me know. This has been a problem for me for the last few days and its driving me nuts as well. Thanks to all!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back